Upload
others
View
6
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Romanian Monasteries. Website
MIRELA-CATRINEL VOICU
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
West University of Timisoara
ROMANIA
[email protected] http://www.feaa.uvt.ro
Abstract— In this paper we present a website model on the presentation of Romanian monasteries. Religion, arts,
history, culture and tourism are some of the reference points which constitute the attraction of this monastery
study. In our paper we are focused on the study of the most important monastery features, which make it a touristic
point of interest: the geographical position, the type (for monks or nuns), the patrons, the year of the build, if it is a
monument, relics, what person buried in the monastery, persons which have lived at the monastery, monastery
founders, significant objects, the way of access at the monastery, accommodation possibilities, etc. On our
website, the user can select preferences for the features presented above and he can view the monasteries which
satisfy the criteria. For example, if the user is interested in the exhibition of icons, he selects this item from the
category of the significant objects and he can view all the monasteries that have such expositions. In this way, the
user can easily find out the treasures of monasteries which makes the website a good source of information and a
tool for increasing the interest for tourism.
Keywords— Websites, tourism, monasteries, Java, SQL Server.
1 Introduction With more than five hundred orthodox monasteries and
sketes, Romania seems to be the country with the
highest number of orthodox monasteries of the world
(see also [20]).
History, treasury, saints and wonders are the subjects
displayed in many books or other presentation items,
regarding the monasteries. In our study we are focused
on building a website in order to present Romanian
monasteries. We use [4] as basic information, where
we find 305 of the most important Romanian
monasteries. 177 of them are monasteries of monks and
the others 128 are monasteries of nuns.
We find monasteries in Bucharest and in all the 41
counties of Romania, in the following way: Alba
county - with 13 monasteries, Arad county - with 4
monasteries, Argeș county - with 17 monasteries,
Bacău county - with 13 monasteries, Bihor county -
with 4 monasteries, Bistrița Năsăud county - with 5
monasteries, Botoșani county - with 9 monasteries,
Brăila county - with 2 monasteries, Brașov county -
with 7 monasteries, Bucharest - with 3 monasteries,
Buzău county - with 5 monasteries, Călărași county -
with 1 monasteries, Caraș - Severin county - with 7
monasteries, Cluj county - with 9 monasteries,
Constanța county - with 3 monasteries, Covasna
county - with 2 monasteries, Dâmbovița county - with
8 monasteries, Dolj county - with 5 monasteries,
Galați county - with 5 monasteries, Giurgiu county -
with 1 monasteries, Gorj county - with 10
monasteries, Harghita county - with 5 monasteries,
Hunedoara county - with 2 monasteries, Ialomița
county - with 2 monasteries, Iași county - with 18
monasteries, Ilfov county - with 7 monasteries,
Maramureș county - with 12 monasteries, Mehedinți
county - with 5 monasteries, Mureș county - with 3
monasteries, Neamț county - with 19 monasteries, Olt
county - with 4 monasteries, Prahova county - with 10
monasteries, Sălaj county - with 2 monasteries, Satu
Mare county - with 6 monasteries, Sibiu county - with
3 monasteries, Suceava county - with 22 monasteries,
Teleorman county - with 2 monasteries, Timiș county -
with 5 monasteries, Tulcea county - with 5
monasteries, Vâlcea county - with 17 monasteries,
Vaslui county - with 10 monasteries and Vrancea
county - with 13 monasteries.
The monasteries were built in different centuries.
Parts of some old monasteries have been destroyed
over time. For this reason, in the case of the older
Recent Researches in Economics
ISBN: 978-1-61804-061-9 142
monasteries, some parts were rebuilt in various
centuries. Even if some monasteries are not old, they
were built near the ancient religious sites, such as an
old church. Now, considering the oldest part from each
monastery, we find 1 monastery from the 12th century,
10 monasteries from the 13th century, 17 monasteries
from the 14th century, 27 monasteries from the 15th
century, 43 monasteries from the 16th century, 61
monasteries from the 17th century, 43 monasteries
from the 18th century, 20 monasteries from the 19th
century, 82 monasteries from the 20th century (55
monasteries were built after 1989) and 1 monastery
from the 21th century.
Some from these monasteries are historical,
UNESCO or architectural monuments.
For a monastery, we find between 1 and 5 holy
patrons or religious celebration, depending also on the
number of monastery churches. We find the Dormition
of the Virgin holy patron in 52 monasteries, the Birth of
the Virgin holy patron in 26 monasteries, the Saint
Nicholas patron in 25 monasteries, the Holy Trinity
holy patron in 23 monasteries, the Saint George patron
in 19 monasteries, the Apostles Peter And Paul patron
in 15 monasteries, the Holy Virgin's Entering the
Church patron in 14 monasteries, the Holy Archangels
Michael and Gabriel patron in 13 monasteries, the
Curing Spring patron in 12 monasteries, the
Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary patron in 12
monasteries, the Holy Virgin's Veil patron in 11
monasteries, the Prophet Elias patron in 11
monasteries, the St John the Baptizer patron in 10
monasteries, the Transfiguration of Jesus patron in 10
monasteries, the Ascension of Jesus patron in 8
monasteries, the Parascheva the Pious patron in 7
monasteries, the Saint Demetrius patron in 7
monasteries, the Beheading of St. John the Forerunner
patron in 7 monasteries, the Saints Constantine &
Helen patron in 6 monasteries, the Descent of the Holy
Ghost patron in 6 monasteries, the Sunday of all Saints
patron in 5 monasteries, the Great Martyr Panteleimon
patron in 4 monasteries, the Resurrection patron in 3
monasteries, the Ascension of the Holy Cross patron in
3 monasteries, the Saint Antony the Great patron in 3
monasteries and the Saint Andrew patron in 2
monasteries. We find others 23 patrons, each of them
as patrons in only one monastery.
In some monasteries, we can find saint relics or
important personalities buried inside.
From the types of treasury objects of the Romanian
monasteries, we recall (see also Figure 2, the
Significant objects list):
- school, school of painting on glass, typography,
school of priests, theological seminary, carpet weaving
workroom, embroidery workroom, painting school,
cultural center, center of famous painters on glass,
Greek school, orthodox spirituality and culture courses,
monastic theological seminary, tailor's workroom,
ecclesiastical painting workroom, carpentry workroom,
painting workroom, knitting workroom, elementary and
secondary school, library, eparchy residence, school of
religious painting, school of church singers;
- the miracle-making icon and holy spring;
- old books collection, ecclesiastical museum
collection, wood icons, glass icons, ethnographic
objects, religious items, historical monuments,
sculpture, architecture, objects of medieval art,
paintings, mural painting, heritage objects, folk
museum collection, bibliophile property, collection of
historical and cultural value wines, byzantine
architecture, typography, state archives, artistically
embroidery, chrism church, old documents, icons in
relief, chronicle mural, manuscripts, tailoring for
ecclesiastical vestments, painting with artistic and
historical value, tapestries, ceramics, wax painting,
engravings, rudimentary printing presses, portrait
gallery, religious ornaments;
- exhibitions dedicated to the life and activities of
bishops, museum, exhibition of icons, religious art
exhibitions, ecclesiastical music concerts, memorial
houses, famous cultural center (calligraphers,
miniaturists, historians), printers, ecclesiastical old art
collection, coin museum;
- bishops necropolis and princely necropolis;
- religious assistance, social assistance and asylum of
elderly;
- resort, center of treatment, sanatorium center and
sulphurous springs;
- vineyards;
- caves.
Starting from the information presented above, in the
Section II, we built a database model, used to store the
website data. In the Section III, we present the website.
2 Database presentation The website information is stored in the database
presented in Figure 1. Now, we present each table from
the database and the signification of fields.
Recent Researches in Economics
ISBN: 978-1-61804-061-9 143
In the Monasteries table we use the followings fields:
ID_monastery – for the unique identification of the
monastery in database, Name, County, Map_area (for
the map area where we can find the monastery), Type
(the values in this field are monks or nuns), MYear (this
field refers to the year when the oldest part of the
monastery was built), MCentury (this field refers to the
century when the oldest part of the monastery was built
– we use this field because for many oldest monasteries
we do not have the value for MYear; in the case of
these monasteries only the century is specified),
Monument (in this field we save value as: UNESCO,
historical, architectural), Address, Telephone, E_mail,
Web_address (in this field we save the web address of
each monastery; we consider that, at this web address,
the important information on the monastery’s present-
day activity is displayed) and Abbot_prioress.
In the Patrons table we use the fields ID_patron,
PDay, PMonth (for many patrons, in the orthodox
calendar we find a corresponding date, e.g. 6 December
for the Saint Nicholas holy patron – in this case, we
save the 6 value for PDay and the December value for
PMonth) and Observation (in the case of certain
patrons, we do not have a fixed date in the orthodox
calendar – the event takes place on different dates,
depending on the year; e.g. for the Ascension of Jesus
patron, in the field Observation we save the 40 days
after Easter value).
Figure 1 Database structure
In the Monastery_patrons table, in the case of each
monastery, we specify all patrons.
To describe the monastery history, we use the
History table. Here we can find the building or
rebuilding years and all the remarkable events that
affected the monastery.
In the Founders table we save data on the founders.
For different cases of monasteries, we find one or more
founders, corresponding to different stages of the
monastery’s history. Also, we can find a person as
founder in the case of more than one monastery (e.g.
Stephen the Great).
In the case of different monasteries we can find saint
relics. We save this information in the Relics table.
Also, in some monasteries, certain historical
personalities have been buried and we save the
corresponding data in the Buried table. Over time,
remarkable personalities have lived for short or long
term, inside of monasteries - we save these data in the
Lived table.
Many websites present information on different
monasteries. These websites can be dedicated to a
monastery or to monasteries from a certain Romanian
region or to Romanian orthodox life. Also, on YouTube
we find many video files with wonderful movies
presenting different monasteries (see, for example,
[12]-[18]). In the Websites table we save the address of
such websites and we provide a short description.
However, in this table we do not consider the
monastery’s official web address (this web address is
saved in the Monasteries table). In order to display, in
our website, image and video files, we use the Photos
and Videos tables.
For visiting Romanian monasteries, we have
motorway or railway access. We specify this
information in the Monastery_access table.
Many Romanian monasteries offer accommodation
and we specify this information the Accommodation
table.
3 Website presentation In Figure 2 we present the first page of our website.
If for all components presented in Figure 2, we have
selected the all value, then we can view all monasteries
ordered by county, as in Figure 4.
We can select a county or a map area, where we want
to view the data on monastery. If we select a county,
from the map area list, the application automatically
selects the all value. Reversely, when we select a
certain map area, from the county list, the application
automatically selects the all value.
Recent Researches in Economics
ISBN: 978-1-61804-061-9 144
Figure 2 Website – the first page
Figure 3 Website – selecting the desire data
This operation excludes possibilities when the user
chooses a county and a map area corresponding to the
cases in which the chosen county is not in the chosen
map area (such a situation means zero monasteries
result records).
Figure 4 Website – selecting a monastery
Using HTML list components, we can select a single
county or a single map area. We also can use other
HTML components for selection. For example, we can
use for each county a checkbox component. But this
means 42 checkbox components only for selecting the
desired counties (41 counties and Bucharest). In this
way, we consider that the HTML components used in
order to build the website are at the discretion of the
website builder.
To select the monastery type (monks, nuns or both),
we use radio components. Out of all the three
possibilities, the user selects only one radio component.
For patron, century, monument, relics, buried, lived,
founders, access and significant objects (see Figure 2),
we use list components. In each case we can view data
for all elements or only for a single selected item (see
also Figure 3, where we select a county).
With a click on the “see data…” button (see Figure
3) we obtain in Figure 4 all monasteries which
correspond to our selection, from the left side of the
webpage.
With a click on the monastery “…” button (see
Figure 4), we can view data on the selected monastery
(see Figure 5).
In Figure 5, using the scroll bar, we can view all the
data corresponding to the selected monastery: county,
map area, type, year and the century when it was built,
if it is a monument, its address, telephone, the e-mail,
the web address, the abbot or the prioress, the patrons,
access, the websites, the information on
accommodation possibilities, the historical events, the
Recent Researches in Economics
ISBN: 978-1-61804-061-9 145
significant objects, information on relics, information
on person buried in the monastery, information on the
person who have lived at the monastery, information on
founders and monastery image and video files. In
Figure 5, Putna Monastery (which has the largest
monastery museum from Romania) is presented.
Figure 5 Website – monastery data
Recent Researches in Economics
ISBN: 978-1-61804-061-9 146
We can use a calendar (see Figure 5) in order to
present information from the Orthodox calendar. When
we select a date, we can view the corresponding
religious information.
4 Conclusion We can find many sources on Romanian monasteries
(books, guides, maps, etc.). Also, many websites (from
Romania or even abroad) present one or more
monasteries.
Many monasteries have a very long history including
very many events. Also, many of them have a very
impressive treasury.
In our study we have presented a website model which
helps the user to find monasteries according to some
criteria. We can find a lot of websites on monastery
presentation. But many of them, even if they provide
much information, they do not allow us to find
monasteries in relation to with some conditions.
For example, in Figure 2, at Significant objects if we
select library, we can find all the monasteries that have
library. Here, we recall that the Neamț monastery has a
library with 18000 volumes, the Agapia monastery has a
library with 15000 volumes, the Cernica monastery has
a library with 14000 volumes, the Hurez monastery has
a library with 4000 volumes etc. In Section I, we have
presented the very large set of significant objects that
can be found in Romanian monasteries. The selections
from our websites can help the user in order to have a
cultural image on monasteries.
Also, our website can be a wonderful guide for
tourists. With good information from website, the user
can create an itinerary for his visit.
References:
[1] Ceballos Sierra, Fco. Javier – Java 2 – Ra-Ma
Publisher, Madrid, 2008
[2] Chopra Vivek, Sing Li, Jeff Genender – Apache
Tomcat 6 – Anaya Multimedia Publisher, 2008,
Madrid
[3] Collection Orthodox monasteries- Ed. Deagostini,
Romania, 2010
[4] Touristic and Road Map – Romanian Monasteries –
Ed.Niculescu, Romania, 2009
[5] Map of Romanian Monasteries – Ed Amco Press,
Romania, 2009
[6] Marchis, Iustin – Romanian monasteries and
churches: Transilvania – Ed. Noi Media Print,
Romania, 2008
[7] Voicu Mirela-Catrinel, Pirtea Marilen, Varga
Roxana Ioana - Website about Summer Offers at the
Romanian Black Sea Resorts - The 3rd WSEAS
Conference on CULTURAL HERITAGE and
TOURISM, (CUHT '10), Corfu Island, Greece, July
22-24, 2010
[8] Voicu Mirela-Catrinel, Pirtea Marilen, Bazavan
Sandra - Travel guide. Websites- The 3rd WSEAS
Conference on CULTURAL HERITAGE and
TOURISM (CUHT '10), Corfu Island, Greece, July
22-24, 2010
[9] http://www.crestinism-
ortodox.com/orthodoxy/churches/romania/
rommonasteries/
[10] http://www.goarch.org/chapel/chapel/calendar
[11] http://www.iconograms.org/
[12] http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=eoJXWH1PwJ4
[13] http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=h2NMG4X_rV0
[14] http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=9ACS0n_7zfg
[15] http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=gpcJSbeY870
[16] http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=nOA3yoK9dW8&fea
ture=related
[17] http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=pyaiKFdQN9w&feat
ure=related
[18] http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=8UwVhovvxEo&fea
ture=related
[19] http://www.orthodoxphotos.com/Monasteries_and_
Churches/Romanian/
[20] http://www.orthodox-monasteries.com/
[21] http://www.ortodox.ro/manastiri/
[22] http://www.romanian-monasteries.go.ro/
[23] http://www.romanianmonasteries.org/
[24] http://www.romaniatourism.com/
Recent Researches in Economics
ISBN: 978-1-61804-061-9 147